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Availability of residential AC design data sheets?

Love the great info on the site, been a reader for a while. Had a basic question......

I did a quick search and didn't see anthing definitive, but I appologize if this topic has already been covered. My background is in industrial systems, and it is typically very easy to get installation and engineering data for commercial and industrial equipment.

I'm getting rid of my window shakers and putting in a central air system. Like I did with my boiler, my plan was to size,specify, and set the equipment myself then call in a tech to do the final connections, charge, and commissioning. I was suprised to find that there is limited or no data available to compare the different offerings (only checked trane and carrier before getting frustrated). I did do a chat with a customer rep from trane who would send me a specific unit's info within 24 hrs, but this is a pain when I just was to do a quick compare. I was wondering where the professionals get their info to size customer units? Just seems odd that its easy to get info on 100 ton DX units but not a little 2 ton residential. Thanks in advance!

I would use size the unit based on ACCA Manual J then tell the Tech guys what Sensible load, Latent load, and CFM you want to meet. There really isn't a easy way to get engineering data, even us engineers have to call in to the reps; so a lot of the time we just go with a single brand that we have the catalog on hand.

Also, make sure you tell them a minimum of SEER 13 and EER 11. Furnace efficiency (gas) should be 80% AFUE minimum.

You can call me Sam

It should be a crime to be a mechanical engineer in San Diego
Summer Design Temperature: 83 F Dry Bulb ~ 69 F Wet Bulb (California Climate Zone 7)

This may not be exactly what you're looking for, however, it can be helpful.

IMO, every A/C equipment mfg'er ought to have Expanded Performance data on their residential A/Cs & heat pumps on the Internet for viewing & down loading.

I hope moderators will allow the links below to work, as it is for the information benefit of everyone to have access to this performance data.

This is NOT to promote Goodman equipment, however, the data that is listed could provide 'ballpark' data for comparison purposes for what your similar Rated equipment could be somewhere near producing.

udarrell - Thanks for the link, that info is exactly what I was looking for. Hadn't really considered goodman, but I may on general principle

Sizing the unit is not a problem. I replaced the boiler 3 years ago with a basic oil unit using the excel/matlab sim I had put together when I was working in the industry(made a couple mods). The house is about 2600 ft^2 and was a bank owned property that had been vacant for a year (built ~1970). Part of my contract to purchase the home was that it was contingent on the piping and heating systems being in working order. When they refilled and tried to restart the boiler it would not reliably start and the oa temps were getting down into the low 20's at night. The interm fix they did was to tie the hot water heater into the basebord heat to keep the pipes from freezing. It was a great data point since it provided a constant heat input for 5 days until the got the system back up and running with a new boiler. I had a data logger in the house over that time and validated my model. I sumitted my request on the boiler sizing which the contractor ignored since the owner(bank) was paying for it (he just replaced it based on the previous unit sizing. After I closed on the house I resized the nozzle/head for the boiler down from 156,000MBH to 92,000MBH input which is about the min I can run with that unit. Bumped the waterside setpoint down to 160 and consistantly get 86 - 87% on my seasonal tune. Even the guys that did the tune said they have never seen my boiler (Dunkirk empire II) run those numbers. Its not the unit I would have purchased but its working so well I'll run it until it dies. Sorry for the longwinded reply, was one of those situations that worked out well.

As for the AC, I can get away with a 2 ton unit (calcs work out and its slightly more than I have now using the window units). Guess I'll have to keep annoying the non-goodman customer service reps for manuals. Thanks!